The Thanksgiving Progression with Immy

So...the first picture was taken as we are getting ready to leave to go to Grandma & Paka's house to celebrate Thanksgiving together with the rest of the fam. Imogen always stands on the rock and since it was a pretty day, I thought I'd take a couple of pictures. So after getting these pictures of only Imogen, and enjoying our evening with the extended family, we came home to find Imogen was EXTRA sleepy and a crabby cake. I promptly started getting her ready for an early bedtime and couldn't help myself as I took her hair out and laughed hysterically. She was HIGHLY offended at my laughter, I'll tell you. I snatched the camera and quickly clicked. Anyway, you can sort of tell in the final picture that she has the beginning of a rash around her mouth. I didn't think much of it, as she's prone to allergic reactions to food sometimes. Nothing severe or anything. Later today I noticed, as I was getting her shoes on, that she had blisters on her feet and then I looked at her hands, some there too, and some on the backside as well and I thought, hmmm...seems like hand, foot, and mouth disease. As soon as I realized this and remembered that Immy was complaining of an ache in her mouth, I phoned our pediatrician who is off for an extended weekend. I pretty much expected that so I immediately turned to the internet and it seems likely that this is what she has. I called Auntie, but she's not sure and she's in IL. so.... I should probably get to a family clinic tomorrow. If it is this HFM disease, there's nothing they can do for it, but I need to be sure. The other two have been lucky not to get this nasty thing so this is my first encounter with anything like this. Hmmm... should be interesting.

BTW, sorry I was lazy and didn't get any other pictures of anyone else yesterday. Shows you how out of it I've been.

More Oldies

I have GOT to get a scanner! Poor Tater Tot hardly has any baby pictures on the computer. I definitely have to remedy this!

Some Oldies

So I started going through pictures tonight and found these and wanted to share. I'll probably post more for fun later. But yes, Halloween 2005, I believe.

Hadley & Tatumn

Hadley Loses Her 1st Tooth

Okay, I've been out of the loop. I'm starting to really notice this since many of you have blogged recently, and I have not. Thanks for all the lovely updates, by the way. Not much to report these last couple of weeks with the exception of this big one: Hadley lost her first tooth! It wasn't too dramatic (not too many tears comparatively). It came out on it's own for the most part and Hadley was so utterly excited to get a visit from the tooth fairy. It was quite a big moment for me too. The moment it became wiggly, I had a moment where I reflected on how quickly this kid is growing up. It struck me pretty hard, but I'm dealing. And NOW, we're already moving on to loose tooth #2 AND a permanent one is already coming in to replace the lost one! WOW! Crazy, huh? The best news, possibly, is that the dentist informed me a year or, probably closer to two years ago, that Hadley would not likely need braces. This is a far cry from what I've experienced with Imogen as of recently. Our dentist, who's so completely awesome by the way, took a gander in Imogen's mouth last month and exclaimed, "Wow, this one's gonna need braces!" I then said, "It's probably from sucking on", and she cut me off and said, "Yeah." I know she assumed Imogen sucks on her thumb but when I added blanket after she was done talking, she looked a little confused. Yeah, me too, lady. :) And then, we already know about the drama in Tate's mouth. So yeah, this begins the road of what will hopefully be a naturally beautiful set of teeth/smile. Oh, I should also mention that this box was received in the mail, shortly after being informed that the first tooth was loose, from the Tooth Fairy, whose name is Matilda-Kate, for Hadley. I think she ordered it from Amazon.com and it came with a small piece of paper to record when the tooth was lost, a place for the Tooth Fairy's name, and some space for the fairy to add a small note for the tooth loser. We awoke to find that Matilda-Kate (named by her parents who couldn't agree on a name, as Dad wanted Matilda and Mom wanted, Kate ;) , was very to happy to receive such a lovely tooth and was leaving a bit of money and some small gifts for Hadley and her sister, Imogen. Needless to say, Hadley is enamored with this generous and magical fairy and can't WAIT for her next visit!

My Sentiment, EXACTLY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VfmqYH9h7M &

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y_gMH2tyMI



Hopefully, something will be done about this and equality and justice will prevail. Some of the same groups of people, who were also once persecuted against, are largely perpetuating and supporting Proposition 8. Hopefully soon, people will be able to live their lives and love freely, free from discrimination. And hopefully, the individuals who are supporting Prop. 8 will realize just how injust it truly is.

Obama, Obama, Obama

Wow, it's been an amazing day. I was finally able to help with the Obama campaign throughout the majority of the day and it was a great experience. I never, ever dreamed that the democratic party would win in Florida and I especially was never completely confident that Barack would win this election today. Therefore, for me, it's been an amazing day. It's an amazing time. I am hopeful that Barack will unite all people and that we will move forward. I will also say that both McCain and Obama gave the most wonderful speeches this evening and I was so very moved by the words of both. Both speeches evolked so much emotion. They are both great men. Today, for me, and I am sure many, many others, is a day that means so much. It truly seems to embrace the idea that here, in this country, anything is possible.

Jack-O-Lanterns

Imogen's

Hadley's

Tatumn's

Eric's

2 Pictures I Forgot to Post

Imogen during the parade (unfortunately didn't get the other kids because of multi-tasking w/the video camera)

Tatumn w/ her friends

And Finally, the BIG B.L.T.!

Here we are. It was so much fun to be the bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwich family. Some people got it, some people didn't. I felt like a phony when people remarked about being so creative and whatnot. One boy said he saw the same idea in a magazine. Seems to me, he might have laid eyes on the October issue of Parents. But yes, the costumes were fairly easy to create. I did have a great deal of help from Aunt Elizabeth, especially with Hadley's costume. She did 99.9% of the work on it. She's so very helpful and crafty and we were so very thankful for it. So yes, trick-or-treating was a great success. The little ones were not very fazed by scary homes, with the exception of one. Tatumn left us in the middle of the night to go around with her friends. :( How could we be a B.L.T. without the bacon? We became the vegetarian version and explained our loss to some people. We even heard at one house that they already had the bacon visit them just minutes before. Funny. Next year we will probably go around without the Tater Tot, as she's outgrowing these silly things with her crazy family so we'll need some ideas for a family of four!

The Girls @ School

I was utterly and completely busy yesterday. I had promised to volunteer for a couple hours at the girls school to help with the fall party in Hadley's class and had to be able to see the preschool parade. Whew! It was SO much fun, as I love spending time with the kids, but I may have stretched myself a bit thin. With the class parade in the middle of my volunteering time, which was the cutest thing I've ever seen, I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to accomplish both tasks smoothly. Imogen is in a small class, so it wasn't surprising that she was the only tomato. I literally had to take video and pictures at the same time as I was running out of Hadley's class to get in front of it (all the other classes and staff came out to watch the preschool parade as well, including Hadley's class). Needless to say, I worked up a sweat between volunteering in her room and trying to contribute a bit to Imogen's. Since the parade was in the middle of my activities with Hadley's class, it made for an interesting time. It was totally worth it, but I laugh when I think about what I must've looked like yesterday. Not only did I have the whole thing with school, but I had last minute touches to add to the costumes, and stuff I had to run to Tate's school. Did I mention it was pretty chaotic this past week?

Okay, so back to my time with Imogen and Hadley. So while volunteering, I was the head of a station where the kids ate chocolate donuts and drank juice boxes while I read them a story (at least attempted to) and assisted in constructing a 3-D tree with four sections that represented the four seasons. I was instructed not to let the kids get near the "snow" material, being somewhat messy, but I will say the whole process was messy nonetheless. I mean really, chocolate donuts, juice boxes, glue, and tissue paper with all the liquid around was anything but neat. Kindergartners are the cutest things but goodness are they distracted, undisciplined, and messy! They certainly do everything over the top and impulsively with such flair though. It's hard to do anything but laugh at them, but doing it everyday is another story. Credit to teachers, that's for sure. After the time with Hadley's class was over, I was able to go with her to lunch, and was it ever sweet with the kids sitting so quietly as they ate their lunches. Oh, and school lunch is just as unhealthy as it was when we were kids! I'm so glad I pack their lunch 95% of the time! I did feel a little bad for Hadley though, as she had a boring sandwich, fruit, and whatnot, while the other kids got Flavo-Ice popsicles, hamburgers, tater tots, fruit juice and milk. I kid you not, that was their lunch. I was surprised, that's for sure. I thought there was lunch reform in the schools! After this, I was able to make my way to Immy's class one more time where they decided to have lunch outside for a change. I didn't take any pictures but it was cute to see them all sitting at the picnic table together as another quite bunch.

All in all, it was a fabulous time, and I can't wait to get to visit the cuties again in the near future.

Tatumn & Her Pumpkin

Hadley